This report describes the status and trends with respect to the use of safe drinking water and basic sanitation and
progress made towards the MDG drinking water and sanitation target.

As the world approaches the 2015, it becomes increasingly important to identify who are left behind and to focus on the
challenges of addressing their needs. This report therefore shows disparities: the gap between progress in providing
access to drinking-water versus sanitation; the divide between urban and rural populations in terms of the services
provided; differences in the way different regions are performing, bearing in mind that they started from different
baselines; and disparities between different economic strata in society.

Each JMP report assesses the situation and trends anew. The information presented in this report includes data from
household surveys and censuses completed during the period 2007-2008. It also contains datasets from earlier surveys
and censuses that have become available to the JMP since the publication of the previous JMP report in 2008.

For this report data nearly 300 surveys and censuses covering the period 1985 - 2008, were added to the JMP data
base. The present JMP report therefore supersedes previous reports. These data do not yet reflect the efforts of the
2008 International Year of Sanitation which mobilized renewed support around the world for stopping the practice of
open defecation and promote the use of latrines and toilets.